My husband can't put this book down! Baxter Black's clean and side-splitting "talk" is entertaining for all audiences. My mother, my husband, and my best friend have all loved this book.

A few years ago I awoke to National Public Radio's Morning Edition and to the voice of some easy going, homespun cowboy reading a poem that had me in stitches by the third verse. As I read "Cactus Trails..." I could hear Black's easy voice utter each word. While his departure from veterinary medicine is a loss to that community, it is a clear gain for easy going, common sense, sanity seeking people caught in the cross hairs of our cell phone, pager, eEVERYTHING society. Thanks to Baxter Black's commentary and writings we have an excuse to slow down a bit each day and get in touch with the basics. Will Rogers would love this guy!

Back to basics, the way life IS in America, without all of the Political poles, lies, and propiganda as spread by the media. should be classed as "Must Read"

Baxter Black's poetry and commentary on the ordinary life of cowboys, farmers, ranchers and rural vets is an entertaining look at a slice of disappearing American life. It is Americana at it's best. Baxter is a true original and a treasure.

Baxter Black proves himself to be one who truly understands the way of life of the american cowboy past and present. This collection is sure to intrigue country and city folk alike.

This book is an excellent collection of poems and stories that give a unique insight into a cowboys life and rural ways.

This collection from Baxter Black is a wonderful herd of wild stories and wonerdful poetry. He really touches the spirt and tickles the funny bone with his wonerful wit and cowboy wisdom. This book also has great listrations for every poem or story. You won't regret this purchase, I know I treasure my copy. Don't miss this great poet in one of his finest publications

Whenever I hear Baxter Black's name mentioned on NPR, my ears take notice. And excerpts from this, his latest offering, are just plain funny, touching, and wonderful! (Note, the poem about his first dance with his daughter and his poem about his pickup truck.) He makes the most common of things and events come sharply into focus until they become uncommonly interesting. If you're looking for entertainment that won't offend the senses and leaves you with that fresh after the rain sense of serenity, you won't do any better than Baxter Black!

I bought this book because my husband and I love Baxter Black's work and almost all cowboy poetry. We enjoyed sharing the poetry with groups of friends and spent many a night laughing til our sides hurt. If you are familiar with Baxter Black's work or just love the old west and cowboy humor this is the book for you!

I thought it was hilarious, but my kids just looked at me funny while I was reading it to them. Extremely educational, in a sort of offbeat way. Great illustrations. I can't believe the price! Your local library has a copy- check it out. That's where mine came from.

Baxter Black is best known for his cowboy poetry, but in an unique twist of events, Baxter wrote a book on rodeo cowboys. Having "gone down the road" myself, this book brought back memories of some pretty crazy times in my life. A must-read for any rodeo fan.

Don't get me wrong, I love Baxter Black. His poetry is great, and his columns are fun and enjoyable. This book had its moments, too, but is a cluttered, frenetic read that could have used a sterner editor. Pared down, this book could have been a howlingly funny novella, instead of an amusing novel. Call me stuffy and all, but it gets tiring weeding through all of the invented silly names for people peppered throughout. No one in this book has a normal name, and what can be occasionally clever becomes a literary device bordering on tedium. Okay, as a comedy-fantasy this book does work for me, as the scenarios are much too fantastic to even smack of realism, and after awhile I gave up and read it in that light. It works, ignoring the intrusive attempts at cleverness, but for the next one, Baxter, throw in a couple of Jim Bobs and Tammys.

Most reviewers talk about this book as bust-a-gut hilarious, which it certainly is at points, but it's also a whole lot more than that. If you have an interest in rodeo cowboys and their life on the road between those hoped-for 8 seconds of adrenalin in the arena, this book is primarily about that. Exaggerated, you bet, but compared to the yarns told in Bill St. John's book of real rodeo cowboys, "On Down the Road," not all that much.

Baxter Black captures and celebrates the comical that exists in the self-deprecating and unpretentious manner of cowboys. The story of his two cowboy pals doing the summer rodeo circuit all over the western states, with hopes of winning enough money to make it to the national finals, explores that rich vein of American humor between guts and glory and human comedy. There is a fine line between fearlessness and foolishness, and few sports make failure not only ignominious but dangerous (being thrown and getting not only a faceful of dirt but broken bones to boot). It's no accident that in the rodeo arena the hardest working cowboys are surely the clowns.

Black's book achieves one other enjoyable objective; it represents the friendship between two men, a subject that has found its way into the buddy movie, but is seldom treated in literature of any kind. These two guys are different enough to play off each other's strengths and weaknesses, but they're no odd couple. Their devotion to each other, their companionship on the road, their late night talks attempting to make sense of the world they inhabit -- not to mention their adventures with porcupines and "wild women" -- all of it is an entertaining celebration of being best pals.

St. John's book about rodeo cowboys is out of print, but if you can find a copy, I heartily recommend it as a companion to this wonderfully entertaining novel by Baxter Black.

Baxter Black has a wonderful mastery of the English language, to hilarious effect. This book has classics such as "Ugly for Hire", "The Cowboy and His Date" and of course, "Croutons on a Cow Pie". Bax puts the cowboy life into lyrical, perfectly crafted snapshots for people to see the heart of the West and the people who live and work there. Get it, read it, love it.

Great book -- the kind that you like to sit in front of a fire and enjoy slowly... Baxter Black is tremendous -- first heard him on National Public Radio and didn't have a clue that he wrote Cowboy Poetry.. Note, if your'e a real cowboy -- someone who's done Rodeo in the chutes (not spectating), ranched, roped then you'll REALLY enjoy the book cause the humor is sharp and dead on target... Good poems about Roping, hiring onto an outfit, you-name-it... Black calls himself a "cattle feeder" and a 'sorry team roper' -- if you know what either of these mean, then do yourself a favor an order the book now... My favorite is the $35 rope poem about team roping -- how you get started with a $35 rope and end up spending $15,000 on your 'team roping' hobby...

Although there is no faulting the content of this book, I do have issues with its presentation. As a literature textbook, it offers little to the user in the way of navigation. The page headers refer not to the authors or works on those pages, but instead to the abritrary titles of the Editors' sections. In this way, it is well-nigh impossible to find anything in the book. Further, the book could have done with explanatory footnotes in the texts and even something so simple as a publication/writing date for each of the selections.

The editor's notes are quite extensive, perhaps too much so. They spend a lot of time advancing their theories about the development of African American literature when they should be presenting the texts and leaving the reader to decide.

However, as I said, I cannot fault the content itself, which is very good, allowing the student a wide breadth of material, much of it by authors who are otherwise ignored by other anthologies. But much of this material is also covered in other anthologies which are much easier to navigate.

This is no mere literary anthology. It's a history, a cultural statement and a new way of looking at the African American tradition. Song lyrics weave themselves through the poems, around the stories, under the essays and beyond the non-fiction articles. Where else could anyone find the rhetoric of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the old down home Virginny blues of Jimmy Reed?

This has the speech that Jesse Jackson gave to the Democratic convention in San Francisco in 1984. I was there. It was a big moment at the time but I didn't recognize it as an historical event until I found it printed here.

The book itself feels like the typical blues song. We Rhythm and Blues kids used to call it a 12 bar blues. This is a song where the first two lines were repeated and then came the summary. In section IV, the subtitle reads, "Play the blues, play the blues for me." Section V repeats the same words. Section VI has the summary line: "No other music'll ease my misery." I can put these words to the standard 12 bar blues tune in my mind.

Hill delicately reaches back to the lyrics from spirituals, prison songs, rural blues, ragtime and back to slave work songs and their African origins. She advances the music through R & B into Avant-Garde Jazz and Rap and Hip Hop. The book contains a CD with songs and speeches.

The music entices us into the literary content. There's more here than the usual fiction, drama, poetry and essays. I found sermons, toasts, prayers, and folktales, both slave and African. Readers may be unfamiliar with some of the classifications -- Conjure tales, Griot's chant, haunt tales and "Call and Response."

We follow the history of a people through the writings of slave poets, the abolitionist orators, the fugitive slave narratives, preacher tales, and the voices of reconstruction. It continues through to contemporary fiction and non-fiction writers.

It's not an easy book to read because every time I look for one idea, I get distracted by selections like, "Sketches from a Black-Nappy-Headed Poet," or "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane."

I confess, I know more about the music than the literature. This book draws me in with artists like Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Howlin' Wolf, Oscar Brown, Jr., Public Enemy and Ice T. After I'm involved, I'm learning about Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Frances Watkins Harper and Sojourner Truth.

I'm afraid that if I were to ask the average American high school student to name three African American literary figures, he or she would say: Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughs and then stop there. Some might add Alice Walker. This text puts those writers in their place and, given the wealth of content here, they occupy a small place compared with all who surround them.

I came upon this book as I was participating in the Urban Dreams Program, a federal project to train high school teachers in computer technology. Pat Hill spoke to our group. She impressed us all with her spirit, her knowledge and her comprehensive understanding of the African American tradition. To the degree that I've been positively influenced by her dynamic presence, I caution the reader of this review to be aware than I may have elevated her book higher than if I had not seen Hill in person. Other than that, this book is one of my personal favorites which will never be loaned out to anyone, ever. So please, my friends, don't even ask.

I found this to be a truly valuable resource put together by some very smart people. It's packed with insightful essays, rich overviews and enough great black literature to keep me busy for a good long while. I only wish it had been written years ago.

Thanks to Gloria Bley Miller for recognizing the simple, yet poignant story Ms. Baxter had to tell. Ms. Baxter's story is so ordinary it's extraordinary in it's basic core in the black community. My mother, her sisters, and their mother could have written this story. I love the strength and independence of black females and Ms. Baxter provides a beacon that demonstrates the values we all aspire to: truth, light, peace and harmony.

I first saw Freddie Mae on Rosie O'Donnell. I thought she was an interesting "character". I throughly enjoyed this book. Freddie Mae tells us about her life growing up in the South and moving North to New York. She has some stories to tell! She tells it like it is. She made me laugh! The book is light, easy reading. I would love to talk with Freddie Mae. This is a book I would recommend as a gift.

This is the most enjoyable and insightful book I've ever read!! This lady (Miss Baxter) has beaten all of the odds. She has inherent common sense, wit and skill. I admire extremely how she's led her life: being a good daughter, a good person, a natural born leader, mercy tempered with an abundance of common sense, family oriented, etc. I just wish she could live a second life to do all the things that were denied her in her youth and beyond. Miss Baxter is an Exhorter: this is a person who brings sunshine and hope into the lives of everyone she meets. If my life could be a third as full as hers, I would die happy! And I haven't forgotten Miss Gloria Bley Miller! Miss Miller: This looks like a labor of love to me. It is an excellent work. Thank you so much for taking it all down!!!!!!

I have heard Baxter Black on a several occations on NPR (National Public Radio just in case you don't know. Check them out...) over the last couple of years. Most of what I did hear I liked so when I found this book I thought it would be great.

This is a collection of short, and I mean less than 2 pages short, stories as told by Black on NPR during 2001. (I think that's right...) Admittedly, something is lost in the translation from radio to book form. Baxter has a way with words and the way he says them is as meaningful a part as what he says. I was glad most stories had a brief introduction and for the glossery at the back of the book for those "non-cowboy" types like myself. I also liked the fact that I could read a story or two, put the book down and be able to come back to it a few minutes later or a week later.

I read all 75 (ish?) stories; I found my dad in one story (you know which one, Dad!), really enjoyed about 10, liked probably 40 or so and missed the point, didn't "get" or just didn't like the rest.
Perhaps it is the differences in age and sex (me being a 30-something married woman) or the generational differences or just the lifestyle differences but in some of the tales I had a hard time relating. I did, however, send the book on to my father who is older and wiser and much more learned in the ways of veterinarians, cowboys and politics and I bet he gets much more out of the book than I.

If you are already familar with Baxter's other stuff and like it then I believe you will not find any fault with this newest book. If this is your first Baxter Black book as it was mine then I suggest one of his more favored volumes to see if you like it first.